If you’re responsible for managing people in the call center, this track is where you’ll find the ideas and resources you need to improve. We’ll tackle the tough issues of retention, stress and attendance, give you insights on coaching and selling, and set your supervisors up for success.
Click on the session of interest below for full information.
Session 101 - Best Time Management Practices of Top Call Center Leaders
Monday, June 01, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
At the end of yet another ten hour day, have you ever wondered if you simply have
too much to do? Or… is it that you’re just not
organized enough? Have you often marveled at how other supervisors and managers in your center seem to be able to get out of the office and to their families at reasonable hours… yet they still deliver the numbers? Do you wonder if some of your work could be self-inflicted? Many contact center supervisors spend two to three hours per day handling email, and another two to three hours in meetings. Add that to the demands for "more coaching," and it is no wonder many are working through breaks and lunch and working at a frantic pace, just to keep up. In this interactive (and safe!) environment, we will address the nitty-gritty realities in the world of supervisors and managers. We’ll tackle, with focus and clarity, the tremendous pressures frontline managers face. With real-world insight from the facilitator and other participants, you will discover:
- The 20 best email practices of top contact center leaders
- How to create a plan to reduce your email time from two or more hours per day to under an hour
- How to tailor a daily routine in order to "get it all done" in eight hours
- How top contact centers clarify the roles of supervisors and managers
- How to keep your representatives engaged when your time is going elsewhere
- How to facilitate team meetings that drive results
- What NOT to do – e.g., when to opt out of meetings or be taken off distribution lists
You will learn from a contact center time management expert how to work smarter, not harder. Believe it or not, there are many best practices of top contact center talent that simply never get taught. This is the first time-management course we’re aware of that is focused JUST on contact centers, and JUST on you – your environment, your day-to-day routine, and your dreams of an organized and sane work life.
Mary Murcott
Performance Transformations
President
Mary Murcott is a business transformation consultant and industry analyst who is often described as a call center futurist. In partnership with senior leadership teams, Mary designs strategies and develops the technical and leadership competencies within companies to deliver integrated world-class service and sales experience at best-in-class economics.
Mary is founder and president of Performance Transformations, Inc. Her clients include high profile Fortune 100 companies, as well as medium sized firms in the financial, healthcare, travel and other service industries. As a senior executive, Mary was instrumental in driving performance turnarounds, startups and consolidations at many companies, including American Express, DHL, Ryder, Budget Rent-a-Car and Cox Communications. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Mary recently delivered keynotes at the International Productivity and Quality Council’s European Consortium in Monte Carlo, the Telecommunications Users Conference in New Zealand, an ICMI Sales Seminar in Shanghai, the Time Warner Customer Service Conference, and the opening address at the IMI 2008 Call Center Conference in Istanbul.
A noted authority on first call resolution and sales, Mary has designed a series of webinars and in-person seminars, which are held both in the US and in 26 other countries. She is author of the popular book, Driving Peak Sales Performance in Call Centers (ICMI Press).
Session 201 - Managing Conflicts - Quickly, Effectively!
Monday, June 01, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Conflicts are inevitable. Differences, disagreements, disputes or discord between colleagues, with customers or with suppliers happen every day. But if badly handled or left unmanaged, they can be costly – reducing organizational performance, decreasing motivation, tying up people’s time, increasing absenteeism, or worst of all, frustrating and annoying customers. In this highly interactive session we will explore case studies common to contact centers, and – using the methods and tools learned – work in teams to determine the best courses of action. In the session, you will:
- Review the causes and sources of conflict, and determine which are common to your environment
- Use a self-assessment tool to identify your common conflict style
- Learn to distinguish and recognize the styles of others
- Discover the pros and cons of your determined conflict style
- Identify actions that cause defensiveness
- Learn and apply an effective four-step model for managing the differences common to contact centers
- Get sound advice in the Q&A session on your specific work conflict issues
Whether you are on the front line with customers, coping with suppliers, or working with human resources or other colleagues, this course will help you develop your knowledge and skill base – and confidence – so that you can resolve conflicts quickly and effectively.
Anne Nickerson
Call Center Coach
President
Anne Nickerson is one of America’s leading experts on the nearly 100,000 contact centers across the country that respond to millions of customer inquires every day of the week. She helps companies and non-profit organizations improve customer satisfaction while assisting them in utilizing every customer contact to increase revenues and profits. Anne is a frequent seminar leader for the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and other industry and business groups. She is also a prolific author, who has published more than 50 articles and her first book, Not by the Seat of My Pants, which helps contact center employees become effective leaders in this highly competitive, fast-paced industry.
Anne’s experience spans more than twenty years in the field of executive and professional coaching, organizational development, team-building, facilitation and customized training. She began her career in customer service and contact center management at CIGNA Healthcare, where she served as Director of Training, Performance and Leadership Development. She subsequently helped create best training and leadership practices for all of CIGNA’s business units.
Anne is principal and founder of Call Center Coach, LLC, which is focused on executive coaching and management development. She holds a B.S. degree in Consumer Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.S. degree in Human Development and Adult Education from Syracuse University.
Session 301 - 25! Tactics for Hiring and Retaining Top Agents
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
U. S. Department of Labor research tells us that as our economy weakened, employees kept on quitting. Why no fear? Because there is an endless supply of jobs for low-skilled workers who are willing to just show up. In this session, employee retention guru Dick Finnegan will present the top 20 ways to hire and retain your best agents. All hiring tools should answer three questions about each applicant: Can they do the job? Will they do the job? And will they stay? Unfortunately most hiring methods answer only the first question and few, if any, answer the third. So whether your tools include interviews, employee referrals, and reference checks—or even if you outsource hiring to a third party—there are retention solutions that can be added or tweaked to retain the agents you hire. This session will provide real answers and solutions that include:
- Re-thinking the applicants you want and how to find and attract them
- Implementing smart hiring tools that weed out short-timers
- Building employee referral programs so half your new hires come via referrals
- Designed realistic job previews that cause disinterested applicants to drop out
- Managing hiring vendors to hold them accountable for retention
- Designing onboarding programs that connect new hires to their supervisors and colleagues
- Building the single most important retention skill among your supervisors
You will leave with a specific, tactical plan to cut turnover in your center, and improve all other metrics as well. If your strategic objectives include improving service levels, call quality, and other critical measures, it’s imperative to start by retaining the right agents.
Richard Finnegan
Finnegan Mackenzie The Retention Firm
President
Dick Finnegan is President and Founder of Finnegan Mackenzie, The Retention Firm, located in Orlando, Florida. He is an expert on employee retention with extensive experience in the contact center industry, and serves on the ICMI Conference Advisory Board.
Prior to founding Finnegan Mackenzie, Dick co-founded TalentKeepers, a global employee retention organization that focuses on helping organizations keep their best talent. Previously he served as a senior executive with SunTrust Banks, the nation’s 7th largest banking firm.
Dick has over 25 years experience working with clients across six continents on employee retention solutions. These clients have included Sprint, Hilton, The Hartford, GE, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. His book, Rethinking Retention in Good Times and Bad, will be published in 2009 and includes many applications for the contact center industry.
Dick holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences including those sponsored by ICMI, The Conference Board, Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), and the American Bankers Association. His articles have been published in professional journals that include Human Resource Planning, The ABA Banking Journal, and The Economic Review.
Session 401 - Leveraging Staff Competencies to Maximize ROI
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
So much of your center’s success is directly tied to the ability of your staff to do their jobs well. Yet, assessing true competencies and assigning and designing jobs accordingly can be tricky business. Whether you’re hiring new staff to fill vacancies or re-aligning staff based on cutbacks, getting the right people into the right jobs with the right training is a vital component of achieving your goals and ensuring the best ROI on your staffing resources. This highly interactive session is designed to take the guesswork out of identifying and leveraging staff competencies. You will learn how to:
- Delineate and chart your organization’s and contact center’s goals
- Utilize a work-style preference assessment to identify employee competencies
- Define your center’s competencies based on resources (human and technological)
- Align competencies with performance expectations and goal achievement
- Effectively re-align staff and communicate change within your team
- Identify the competency gaps and construct an action plan for closure of the gap
- Discover how leveraging work styles can ensure a return on investment for your labor dollars and provide a foundation for achieving your center’s goals
Implementing the strategies taught in this workshop will put you on the road to happier, more satisfied employees, executives, and customers!
Anne Ivey-slough
LSA Global
Senior Account Consultant
Located in Raleigh, North Carolina, Anne Ivey Slough serves as a leading consultant to the contact center industry. She has a rich history of directing senior level executives in the development of their corporate strategies and contact center initiatives, and has extensive background in developing business plans, diagnosing operational gaps, and implementing results-oriented sales culture initiatives in contact centers of all sizes.
Anne has both a breadth and depth of experience in establishing and growing high-performing teams. From selecting technology to establishing recruiting and selection procedures, goal setting processes, feedback systems, and coaching models, she has an expansive understanding of the complexities facing contact centers today. Anne has worked extensively in the financial services industry with banks, insurance companies, and card services groups in the United States and abroad. Her career expertise also spans the retail, manufacturing, telecommunications, and utilities sectors.
Anne is an in-demand speaker at leading contact center conferences. She holds a BA and MA from East Carolina University.
Matthew Richter
Thiagi Group
President
Matthew Richter is the Resident Rogue Scholar and President for The Thiagi Group. He is a facilitator, game designer, instructional designer, and management consultant. Matthew has consulted with organizations that include Redwood Trust, CenturyTel, EA, Microsoft, Carolina Power and Light, IGT, Cadence Design Systems, and Sony. He is an expert in the areas of management, leadership, and performance technology. He specializes in employee motivation. Matthew mixes corporate, not-for-profit, academic, and independent experience, enabling him to adapt and best serve his clients.
Matthew is the co-creator (with Scott Rigby of Immersyve, Inc. and Richard M. Ryan of the University of Rochester) of MAPS (Motivation, Assessment, and Performance System), an innovative performance management system that breaks all of the traditional paradoxes of management.
He is a sought-after public speaker and has delivered keynotes and conference presentations for such organizations as the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), Training Magazine, the International Alliance for Learning (IAL), North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA), Influent, and the National Society for Black Engineers. He was the 2006 ISPI National Conference Chair, and has been an encore presenter for the last five years for his presentation Creating a Motivating Environment.
Matthew is a featured author in the 2001, 2002, and 2003 Training and Performance and/or Team and Organization Development Sourcebook, published by McGraw Hill. His most recent articles on learner motivation are published in the upcoming Pfeiffer book, the Trainers' Portable Mentor, due out in May 2008. He has also written several articles on leadership, motivation, instructional design, storytelling, and organizational development.
Session 501 - A "More Better" Workplace: Improve the People, Team and Morale in Your Organization
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Looking for ways to make your company culture a better place to work and play? If your work environment causes you to consistently deal with issues such as disengagement, cynicism, sarcasm, negativity, burnout, toxicity, and apathy – and if sometimes you are even experiencing these yourself – this workshop is for you! You know your workplace can feel better, do better, and be better than it is right now. Some of the principles we will practice include establishing traditions, the deliberate use of stories, more meaningful recognition, inspiring versus requiring, “readership leadership,” creating a question-ABLE culture, and becoming a positively contagious leader. Key takeaways will include:
- A 52-week plan for improving your culture and workplace: proven, published, and practical best practices for building culture
- A list of resources to keep you energized and focused on your journey
- The confidence to know exactly what to do at your very next team meeting to motivate and inspire your team
Learn how you can take your organization to higher ground! You’ll leave this workshop with a clear understanding of what workplace culture is and how to make it better by positively and powerfully influencing it with proven cultural best practices.
Kirk Weisler
Team Dynamics
Chief Moral Officer
Kirk Weisler is widely recognized as Chief Morale Officer (CMO) of the customer service and support industries. A veteran of customer service, Kirk has worked to develop and implement a revolutionary strategy, philosophy, and approach to the contact center world.
Kirk is widely sought after to share his insightful stories and foundational philosophy of culture and team-building with customer service and support center organizations around the country. In addition to his role as a professional speaker and trainer, Kirk is currently helping to build a wilderness treatment and training facility for at-risk youth. His unique and diverse background as part of Outward Bound's professional development team, as a former US Army Ranger, and as an experiential team trainer, make him a dynamic, outside-the-box motivator and trainer, and an inspiring and entertaining presenter.
A graduate of Brigham Young University, Kirk believes that people that are having a great life will do a great job, and that having a great life is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice.
We’ve emphasized the “how to” in these critical operations topics so you can get busy making improvements as soon as you get back to the office. Results are what you need, and this track will show you exactly how to achieve them in your own operation.
Click on the session of interest below for full information.
Session 102 - A Crash Course in Service Level, Quality and Productivity
Monday, June 01, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
This fast-paced, highly practical course covers the essentials that those in leadership positions absolutely, positively need to know in order to deliver effective contact center services. Drawing from his best-selling book,
Call Center Management on Fast Forward, and his work with contact center leaders around the world, Brad Cleveland will cover the essential aspects of delivering great results for your customers, your employees and your organization, including:
- The role of contact centers in today’s ever-changing economy
- The definitions and dynamics behind service level, quality and productivity
- The essential resource planning steps that must be in place
- Key immutable laws and tradeoffs in the customer contact environment
- What “real” productivity is and how to achieve it
- Examples of what other organizations are doing
- The metrics that best support the excellent operational results
- How to know whether your contact center is achieving its full potential
You’ll leave this session with the know-how and renewed confidence to make sound decisions for your organization. You’ll know what to do to get your colleagues on board. You’ll learn how to avoid common mistakes, and what you need to do to set the right course before bad habits take root. And you’ll have a proven methodology for boosting your contact center’s effectiveness – and rejuvenating your own development priorities!
Brad Cleveland
ICMI
Senior Advisor And Former President/Ceo
It’s highly likely that Brad Cleveland has worked with more contact center managers than any other person worldwide. He is passionate about helping organizations improve the effectiveness of their customer contact services, and has delivered keynotes, seminars and consulting services across 45 states and in over 60 countries. He has appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal, as well as on major television networks, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the in-flight programs of several airlines.
As former president and CEO of the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), Brad and the ICMI team grew the firm into a trusted source of content for contact center professionals, eventually leading it to a highly successful sale to Think Services; he now serves as a Senior Advisor to the organization.
Brad is author/editor of eight books – including the profession’s most turned-to management book, Call Center Management on Fast Forward –and is recipient of an Amazon.com best-seller award.
Session 202 - Gauging Contact Center Performance: Moving Metrics Into Actionss
Monday, June 01, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
One thing is certain in every contact center – no two days are exactly the same. Contact centers are often caught in the middle of growth and change – while trying to keep both the organization and customers engaged and satisfied. Adding to the challenge, contact centers are flooded with metrics, making it a challenge to figure out what is truly important to gauge and track. Too often, the focus of the center shifts from managing people to managing the numbers. A much better approach is to select the right metrics from the start, then use them to reframe and refocus the conversation from numbers to behaviors. In this process, you enable everyone in the organization to know where to spend more time – or less. This interactive session will delve into key topics, including:
- Revisiting accessibility and quality metrics from the customer’s perspective
- Ways to avoid a “metrics overload” management philosophy
- Understanding when you really need to take action
- Getting real ROI by focusing on the right metrics
- Metrics accountabilities for all contact center job roles – from agents to executives
- Ways to engage and focus front line agents on metrics they can directly control
- Strategies for "getting it right and keeping it simple"
In this fast-paced and engaging workshop, industry expert Tim Montgomery will share what he's experienced while working with some of the most recognized service organizations in America. You will learn how best-in-class contact centers use metrics to create an environment of continuous improvement and employee delight.
Tim Montgomery
The Service Level Group
Principal
As a seasoned industry executive, popular speaker and highly regarded consultant, Tim Montgomery has guided thousands of contact center agents and leaders to improve individual and team performance, and exceed operational objectives. Tim is part of an elite group of independent consultants who have earned a certified associate designation from the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI). He is also a professional member of the National Speakers Association (NSA).
During the course of his career, Tim has held a variety of leadership positions, ranging from call center manager to vice president of sales and operations. Tim’s call center leadership experience was fine-tuned by leading call center and customer service operations for three of the most celebrated companies in the world – USAA, The Coca-Cola Company and The SCOOTER Store. His consulting clients have included some of the most recognized organizations in America – DELL, AIG, Lifetouch, ADP, Mitsubishi, Farmers Insurance, Allstate, Kodak, Liberty Mutual, Cinergy, Gartner Group, Amerigroup, Prime Therapeutics, Sykes, Prudential and others.
Tim has written articles and white papers on a variety of management, customer service, and contact center topics. His work has been translated into several languages and featured in many global publications, industry journals and position papers. Tim earned both his BBA in Accounting and MBA degrees from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and earned Lean Six Sigma Certification from Villanova University.
Session 302 - Creating a Customer-Focused Culture Through Top-Notch Quality
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Quality is an imperative for every contact center that is looking to reduce costs while balancing the need to create a differentiating customer experience. Since profitable customers are scarce assets for any company, putting a premium on quality across strategy, people, process and technology is essential. For a company to capture market share in today’s hyper-competitive economy, it must define and execute on a multi-dimensional approach to quality. This interactive session will focus on the compelling case for better quality in contact centers. You will have the opportunity to share quality best practices and success stories, and to learn how to infuse quality from top to bottom in your organization. Come and discover:
- How to calculate the value of first contact resolution and voice-of-the-customer programs
- Best practices for designing an effective quality assurance monitoring form
- Coaching and empowering your contact center agents to take ownership of customer issues
- Integrating quality monitoring programs with customer satisfaction initiatives
- Determining whether quality initiatives such as lean six sigma add value or are a distraction
You’ll leave this dynamic session with a fresh perspective on tackling quality issues within your organization. And you’ll be inspired to make improvements within your center – immediately!
Art Hall
Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting LLC
Manager
Art Hall, a consultant with Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting, is the former VP of sales and customer care operations at NetBank. He has more than twelve years experience in call center management, customer service, CRM and default administration. Art understands the dynamics of managing the customer experience across all customer touch points, developing strategies to effectively improve the total customer experience (TCE), and applying metrics in a multi-channel environment that are aligned to corporate strategy.
Art was recognized as one of the 2007 Customer Champions by 1to1 magazine. He was a recipient of the Most Valuable Thought Leader Award at Frost & Sullivan’s 2005 Customer Contact Executive Summit, and was recently accepted as an executive advisory board member for Frost & Sullivan and the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment. Art has also completed the requirements to be a Certified Call Center Benchmarking Specialist through Purdue University’s Center for Customer-Driven Quality.
Along with being a national conference speaker and thought leader, Art is a member of the Board of Directors for the Atlanta chapter of the Customer Relationship Management Association (CRMA), where he currently serves as the president and Atlanta Chapter Head. He is also a member of the SOCAP International (Society of Consumer Affair Professionals) Georgia Chapter, CCNG (Call Center Network Group), and the Minority Technology Council (MTech Council), a special interest group of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG).
Session 402 - Driving Satisfaction and Cutting Costs with First Call Resolution (FCR)
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Over the last several years, numerous studies have proven that the key driver in attaining high levels of customer satisfaction within the contact center is first call (first contact) resolution. Improve FCR and your customer satisfaction scores will immediately improve. But it gets better: Just think of the savings you can deliver when you move FCR by 10 points – expect to reduce costs by 10% or more! This is one of the few areas of contact center operations where you can improve customer satisfaction and reduce expenses at the same time. Whether you’re new to FCR, or an old pro, this interactive workshop will help you to supercharge your FCR initiatives. You will gain valuable insight from both the facilitator and your peers, on topics including:
- How best to measure FCR – even if your company is technology-challenged and capital-constrained
- Industry FCR benchmark data
- Top myths and misconceptions of FCR measurement
- 15 methods and tips for improving FCR
- How to get other departments involved in FCR improvement
- How to structure and analyze FCR data to compel action
An important outcome of this workshop is a tailored plan of action for your company, with ranked priorities and tips for handling executive push-back and bureaucracy. Takeaways will also include the "Best of FCR" articles. When properly positioned, the case for a strong focus on FCR is both fascinating and compelling.
Mary Murcott
Performance Transformations
President
Mary Murcott is a business transformation consultant and industry analyst who is often described as a call center futurist. In partnership with senior leadership teams, Mary designs strategies and develops the technical and leadership competencies within companies to deliver integrated world-class service and sales experience at best-in-class economics.
Mary is founder and president of Performance Transformations, Inc. Her clients include high profile Fortune 100 companies, as well as medium sized firms in the financial, healthcare, travel and other service industries. As a senior executive, Mary was instrumental in driving performance turnarounds, startups and consolidations at many companies, including American Express, DHL, Ryder, Budget Rent-a-Car and Cox Communications. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Mary recently delivered keynotes at the International Productivity and Quality Council’s European Consortium in Monte Carlo, the Telecommunications Users Conference in New Zealand, an ICMI Sales Seminar in Shanghai, the Time Warner Customer Service Conference, and the opening address at the IMI 2008 Call Center Conference in Istanbul.
A noted authority on first call resolution and sales, Mary has designed a series of webinars and in-person seminars, which are held both in the US and in 26 other countries. She is author of the popular book, Driving Peak Sales Performance in Call Centers (ICMI Press).
Session 502 - Workforce Management Team: Need One, Needs Fixin’ or Not Sure?
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
If you don’t have effective workforce management (WFM) processes in place, you could be missing out on tremendous efficiencies. But making far-reaching changes in the ways people are scheduled and managed should not be undertaken lightly. Are dedicated resources required to “get it right,” or are there other alternatives to success? If a WFM team is necessary (or already in place), how can you assess its performance? In this interactive session, we’ll explore what the WFM function is, and what it can do for your center, your customers’ experiences and your organization. Whether you have a team and know it needs improving, you have one but aren’t sure how it is doing, or you are trying to decide how to best proceed with this function, this session is for you! As a result of attending, you will be able to:
- Assess where you are on the workforce management lifecycle
- Understand the specific components of the workforce management process
- Strategically plan your workforce management team structure
- Determine how to measure the effectiveness of the WFM processes and team
- Communicate the importance and value of WFM to all levels within your organization
This seminar will help you understand the “who, what, why, when, where” of workforce management, and ensure you are getting the most from your organization’s WFM initiatives.
Rose Polchin
ICMI
Senior Consultant
Rose Polchin is a senior consultant for ICMI. She brings over 20 years of contact center experience, including five years as an independent consultant and 15 years in contact center leadership roles in the financial services and health care industries. During her tenure as senior director of customer service strategies for one of the country’s largest health care laboratory services, Rose’s leadership was instrumental in creating and implementing a common vision, strategy and processes across the company’s multi-site contact center network, which helped establish the contact centers as strategic assets for the business.
Rose now continues her commitment to excellence in customer service through her delivery of ICMI seminars and by partnering with customers on key projects. Customers and attendees of her seminars praise her energy, knowledge and dedication to assisting them in creating value for their respective organizations and its customers. Rose is a member of the American Society of Training and Development. She is a popular speaker at seminars and conferences throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and authors articles on key topics for industry publications.
Brent Haferkamp
ICMI
Senior Consultant
Brent Haferkamp is a Senior Consultant for Incoming Customer Management Institute (ICMI) providing strategic and tactical consulting for organizations in a variety of industries. During 2008, Brent has performed a number of call center assessment assignments, as well as two mid-term Executive Replacement (Director) assignments.
- Revamped and redesigned the call flow and staffing/scheduling for 5 regional claim units of a major insurance company
- Analyzed and made recommendations for workforce management improvements, IVR routing changes, and operations consolidation for a large international not-for-profit
- Reviewed call routing structure and recommended improvements for a 9-site field office operation for a major insurance company
Prior to joining IMCI, Brent was a Senior Manager overseeing the workforce and technical operations of a large passenger transportation company with 24/7/365 operations and annual call volumes in excess of 24 million. Prior to that, Brent was a Workforce Manager for a large international call center outsourcer, supporting up to 20 programs at any given time. Brent graduated from Parks College of St. Louis University with a degree in Aerospace Science. He is a former U.S. Air Force Pilot and veteran of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. In his spare time, he writes and develops Visual Basic call center tools and is very active on a number contact center related web forums.
If you’re ready to be inspired by fresh ideas on strategy and leadership, this is the track for you. We’ll delve into the “big picture” issues that keep you up at night, and provide insights into leading your team to success from the best in the business.
Click on the session of interest below for full information.
Session 103 - Is Your Contact Center a Revenue Center?
Monday, June 01, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
In today’s economic climate, contact centers are increasingly responsible not only for the customer experience, but also for driving revenue. In this session, you will learn how to tackle the challenges of motivating, hiring, and developing reps to not only exceed customer expectations, but to uncover significant revenue opportunities. This course will equip you to:
- Create a hiring process that identifies candidates who will thrive in a sales and service role
- Address barriers to change and inspire reps to embrace their new role
- Create a call flow process that provides a road map to successful sales dialogue
- Address the most difficult challenges to successful cross and up-selling, which often results in a 30% or more increase in average revenue per call
- Implement an efficient coaching process to quickly develop a successful sales and service team
- Establish performance metrics and incentive plans to motivate your team and reinforce desired behaviors
- Reduce agent attrition
- Implement reference tools for upselling, based on proven templates
Tom Stanfill
Aslan Training & Devlopment
None
Tom Stanfill, Founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of Aslan Training & Development, has focused his 14 years of experience exclusively on the creation of training programs for selling and managing customers via the telephone in contact center and inside sales environments. He has developed programs for companies such as FedEx, Apple, Aventis Pasteur, Boehinger Ingelheim, Xerox, Deluxe Corporation, American Power Conversion, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tyco, Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, ScanSource, GE, and Russell Athletic.
Prior to starting Aslan, Tom founded and ran ES2 – a business-to-business service bureau recognized by Telemarketing Magazine as the 4th fastest growing service bureau in the country. With the combination of extensive sales and sales management experience and more than a decade focused on developing training programs in over eight countries, Tom offers a wealth of insight to his audiences.
Session 203 - Unleashing the True Value of Your Center
Monday, June 01, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
In an ever-changing and unpredictable economy, customer contact services have become a key battleground for loyalty, revenue and market share. One of the most fundamental developments in organizations leading the pack is a distinct mindset: Customer care is not a program, prescription, set of services or IT application… it’s much more. It’s a commitment, a “way of doing business,” that spans the entire organization and its key suppliers and partners. In this session, specifically designed for managers and executives with leadership responsibilities, you’ll learn:
- How to leverage the potential of your contact center in this organization-wide effort
- What others in the organization need to know about the contact center’s role
- How to capture and share intelligence
- How to establish an organization-wide team
- The priorities that must take front seat
- Measures that will support you along the way
- How to shape a supporting culture
Too many leaders see the strategic potential of their contact centers – but settle for mediocre impact given the proliferating responsibilities, resource demands and sheer busyness of their operations. This session will reveal how to break out, and what to expect along the way. The end result of the journey you’ll embark upon will be a cross-departmental, cross-functional focus on serving and supporting customers.
Brad Cleveland
ICMI
Senior Advisor And Former President/Ceo
It’s highly likely that Brad Cleveland has worked with more contact center managers than any other person worldwide. He is passionate about helping organizations improve the effectiveness of their customer contact services, and has delivered keynotes, seminars and consulting services across 45 states and in over 60 countries. He has appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal, as well as on major television networks, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the in-flight programs of several airlines.
As former president and CEO of the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), Brad and the ICMI team grew the firm into a trusted source of content for contact center professionals, eventually leading it to a highly successful sale to Think Services; he now serves as a Senior Advisor to the organization.
Brad is author/editor of eight books – including the profession’s most turned-to management book, Call Center Management on Fast Forward –and is recipient of an Amazon.com best-seller award.
Session 303 - The Champion™ Leadership Training Workshop
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
As contact center leaders, we have traditionally focused on the agent level and building skills for those people who directly interact with customers. When we identify high performance agents, we often promote them to team leaders or supervisors. Well—as you’ve probably discovered, great agents don’t inherently make great leaders. This workshop was developed specifically for front-line supervisors, team leaders and managers, and is designed to help them strengthen their coaching and leadership skills. Highly interactive, this session will provide proven tools, models and strategies that can be implemented immediately. You will learn:
- The five characteristics of exemplary leadership
- How to tie everyday behaviors into these characteristics
- Ways to tie agent behaviors into the vision and mission of the company and department
- An approach for providing feedback to agents in a clear, concise manner while gaining their buy-in (and without taking them off the phone for hours!)
- How to foster employee engagement by learning how to delegate, establish milestones and provide guidance
- How adult learning principles tie into performance development, and how to use this knowledge to help agents improve their performance
- A proven strategy for leading agents to a specific conclusions, rather than just telling them the answers
- How to stop triangulation and deal with agent conflict effectively
- Ways to boost agent engagement and foster professional development in a strategic and engaging way
Tip: Combine this workshop with “Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your Leadership Style” for a full day of in-depth, practical leadership training you can put to use as soon as you return to your contact center!
Valerie Kerwin
Radclyffe Consulting, LLC
Senior Consulting
Valerie Kerwin became the COO and Human Resources Practice Leader of Radclyffe Consulting, LLC in February 2009. As the first associate hired at The Radclyffe Group, LLC in 1994, Valerie has helped to cultivate an organization that specializes in providing tangible skills, tools and knowledge to clients' contact center teams to consistently deliver World Class Service.
Valerie joined Radclyffe with a strong background having worked in sales and service contact centers for Pacific Bell, AT&T and Levi Strauss & Company. She has worked with Lowes Home Improvement, Mercedes-Benz USA, Becton Dickinson & Company, Johnson & Johnson and One Call Medical on major World Class Service initiatives that required bottom-line results. Valerie leads the Human Resources Practice for Radclyffe and is the expert in Facilitation, Development and Implementation of The 20 Keys and Levels of Action™ and Champion™ Leadership Programs. She is responsible for all development of rewards and recognition programs, employee engagement initiatives and leadership development programs for Radclyffe Consulting clients, as well as leading and developing the Radclyffe human capital.
Valerie is an active member of American Society for Training and Development NNJ Chapter and serves on the Marketing Committee. She attended Montclair State University and is currently pursuing her SPHR designation from the Society of Human Resources Management.
Session 403 - Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your Leadership Style
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating people. There are as many leadership styles as there are leaders. Whether you are leading a team or leading a corporation, your leadership style is crucial to your success and the success of the organization. This workshop takes a look at specific leadership styles, and their impact. You will be offered a specific self-assessment, and identify detailed areas of your strengths, how to leverage them, and specific goals for improvement. A variety of case studies will be introduced in small groups to determine the appropriate leadership style for each. As a participant, you will:
- Define your role as a leader, and the difference from other roles
- Learn the pros and cons of specific leadership styles
- Determine your leadership style and explore ways to use this information to improve your success
- Discover the forces that influence your style
- Identify the styles that work best for specific situations
- Discover how to focus your efforts
- Discover and observe leadership style in action
- Create a custom action plan that focuses on skills you would like to develop
You will leave this workshop understanding the impact of your leadership style. And you will be armed with tools that will enable you to be a more flexible, effective leader.
Anne Nickerson
Call Center Coach
President
Anne Nickerson is one of America’s leading experts on the nearly 100,000 contact centers across the country that respond to millions of customer inquires every day of the week. She helps companies and non-profit organizations improve customer satisfaction while assisting them in utilizing every customer contact to increase revenues and profits. Anne is a frequent seminar leader for the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and other industry and business groups. She is also a prolific author, who has published more than 50 articles and her first book, Not by the Seat of My Pants, which helps contact center employees become effective leaders in this highly competitive, fast-paced industry.
Anne’s experience spans more than twenty years in the field of executive and professional coaching, organizational development, team-building, facilitation and customized training. She began her career in customer service and contact center management at CIGNA Healthcare, where she served as Director of Training, Performance and Leadership Development. She subsequently helped create best training and leadership practices for all of CIGNA’s business units.
Anne is principal and founder of Call Center Coach, LLC, which is focused on executive coaching and management development. She holds a B.S. degree in Consumer Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.S. degree in Human Development and Adult Education from Syracuse University.
Session 503 - The Moment of Truth - Mastering the Art and Science of Decision Making
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Strong decision-making skills are critical for any leader, with a direct impact not only on the outcome of projects, but also teamwork and overall staff morale. The “real time” aspect of the work of a contact center makes this all the more true. And yet, few managers are comfortable making tough decisions in a timely fashion, particularly in stressful times. The desire to put off decisions is great, but in the end leads only to outcomes that are further outside of our control. Utilizing acclaimed sources, such as Michael Useem's book,
The Go Point, and the Harvard case study,
Fatal Ascent: Leadership Lessons from the 1996 Everest Tragedy, this unique session will explore the best practices of decision-making. You will be immersed in legendary examples of people “facing their go point, where actions – or lack of them – determined the fates of individuals, companies, and countries." And, you’ll discover why some decisions are flawless, perfectly on target, and others utterly disastrous. We’ll explore true-life examples, such as:
- Why did Robert E. Lee send General George Pickett on an almost suicidal charge against the Union lines at Gettysburg?
- Why did five people die on Mt. Everest in 1996 attempting to reach the highest peak on earth?
- What impact did “decision-making skills” (good and bad) have on the totality of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster?
- What should you do if you assume responsibility for a scandal-wracked corporation teetering on the brink of disaster?
- How would you proceed, knowing your decisions will have consequences for thousands of employees and investors?
You will complete exercises, alone and in groups, based on decisions that need to be made within your own organization. And you’ll leave with the guidance necessary to move forward with confidence when it’s time to "get off the fence and into the game.”
William Greenwald
Humana
National Director, Business Advisory Group
William Greenwald has more than 17 years of experience working in contact centers within the healthcare and financial services arena. His leadership experience and areas of expertise are both extensive and diverse, covering disciplines including contact center management, organizational design, strategy formation and execution, talent management, executive coaching, business process reengineering, statistical process control and corporate venturing.
William joined Humana in 2004 as director of the Cincinnati contact center and back office operations. In 2006, he assumed a new position leading an internal business advisory division focused on business and performance management optimization. Before joining Humana, William held several key leadership positions within industry-leading firms such as Vanguard Financial Group and JP Morgan Private Bank.
William holds two masters degrees and has completed his doctoral course work at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt with over nine years of hands-on experience teaching and leading Green Belt and Black Belt flights. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, and has served as adjunct faculty for numerous universities.
The amazing array of bells and whistles in today’s technology is impressive – and overwhelming. This track will help you understand what’s most important: how to use call center technology to get the job done. These sessions range from selecting applications to using them, including how to coordinate across the organization.
Click on the session of interest below for full information.
Session 104 - Contact Center Technology 102
Monday, June 01, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
So you can spell ACD, IVR, CTI, CRM, QM, WFM, KM and WFO, and maybe you are suspecting that there is more to these technologies than meets the eye. Perhaps you’re a seasoned contact center leader and you want to be more than “dangerous” with your knowledge of these technologies. Or maybe you’re an IT professional who is wishing you could dive deeper into the possibilities of today’s technology (without a vendor trying to sell you something). Come to this session and we guarantee you’ll leave armed for the discussions needed to ensure you get the most out of the technologies you have today – and will have tomorrow. We will foster an engaging discussion (yes, technology is engaging!) about the advanced capabilities of contact center technologies, covering topics such as:
- VoIP architectures and unified communications approaches for virtualization (including home agents and outsourcers), business continuity, and enterprise resource optimization
- Advanced routing techniques that optimize the caller experience and your resources
- The latest self-service platforms, application capabilities, and interfaces
- Sophisticated performance management tools for scorecards and analytics that can significantly improve your center’s insights and value
- Applications for multimedia contact handling, consolidated desktop integration, and knowledge centered support
We will fear no acronym in this course! And we promise you’ll leave more prepared for whatever projects lie ahead.
Lori Bocklund
Strategic Contact
President
Session 204 - The Cutting Edge of Service: Leveraging Web 2.0 into Better Services
Monday, June 01, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Successful contact centers and forward-thinking organizations are quickly learning that they can leverage modern technologies and Web 2.0 to increase customer service capabilities. Through social networking, forums and online sources, customers can serve each other and themselves. It may sound simple – but this development changes the game for tracking the customer experience and ensuring quality service. In this innovative session, you’ll learn about:
- Voice over IP migration: Why is it important to your organization? How can it improve customer experience? What can you expect in the future?
- How to meet customer expectations in a Web 2.0 world that includes information portals and personalization, chat and click to talk, and avatars
- Using social networking to impact your customers’ experiences
- Social networking technologies and integration into the contact center
- Creating a successful collaborative customer experience
- The impact of modern technologies on current tracking and technologies
- Technology options and implementation issues
- Engaging the customer, and success factors for creating a collaborative environment
Be prepared for the future! This progressive workshop will provide just the right mix of technology information and how these new developments will impact the processes in your contact center.
Peggy Gritt
NISH Contact Center Services
Sr. Program Manager
Peggy Gritt has offered workshops and speaking engagements across the globe in her 19-plus years in the contact center and voice/data industry. She helped to launch one of the first multi-channel ACD products on the market, as well as one of the first voice over IP-enabled call distributors using standards-based protocols. She has helped small and large contact centers with start-up planning, strategy, technology planning, and detailed requirements.
Peggy recently began a position with NISH, Inc. (www.nishteleservices.com) to manage the AbilityOne program for contact centers and help desks, to create employment for persons with disabilities. She assists community rehabilitation programs to offer superior service and technology strategy to provide contact center services to the federal government and commercial organizations.
Session 304 - Avoiding the Pitfalls in Technology Selection and Implementation
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
If you are preparing for a project that improves upon what you have or implements new technologies – whether you are part of the contact center or IT/telecom – this session is a “must attend." We’ll identify the soup to nuts of successful projects through three key stages – planning, implementation, and support. You will gain an understanding of the big picture, “how to do it right,” and will learn many of the specific success factors for today’s hottest technologies. You’ll also acquire important tips about strategy, requirements, vendor evaluations, implementation, managing the technology transition, as well as the potential organizational and process ripple effects. Takeaways and exercises in the session include:
- Strategic assessment and planning framework
- Sourcing strategy pros and cons (buy vs. build, best of breed vs. suite, premise vs. hosted, etc.)
- Requirements outline and starter evaluation criteria
- Tools and processes to ensure successful due diligence, competitive pricing, and vendor/technology selection
- Guidelines for a successful statement of work
- Critical project implementation steps and best practices
The course will provide the tips and tools you need to never again be confronted with unpleasant “surprises” when managing your technology projects.
Lori Bocklund
Strategic Contact
President
Session 404 - Using Your Recording Technology to Drive an Enterprise-wide Focus on Customers
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
In today’s economic climate, many organizations are reducing contact center budgets. And even if your company has the funds, you still may not get the allocations you need. Operating costs and technology investments must deliver a strong and compelling ROI. It’s time to put a laser-like focus on the results you can—and must—produce! Call recording is a common example of an area that may only be delivering a portion of its potential for your center and organization. This practical workshop is intended for leaders who have already worked hard on improving quality at the agent level – e.g., through scoring, coaching and individual development – but know it’s time to cultivate a bigger and broader impact. The highest form of quality is to ensure the contact center is using the intelligence it captures in the course of handling contacts to drive change across the organization. Analytics software is becoming more widely available, but the approach requires the right processes, structure and technology support – implemented at an appropriate cost. This workshop will help you advance your thinking in areas such as:
- How the criteria for recording technology has changed in the past several years
- How to use analytics to “wake up” affiliate parts of the organization
- Developing a quality/recording road map for the next three years
- Determining your technology requirements
- How to apply analytics beyond agent coaching and development
- Accurately identifying customer irritants with technology and processes – and eliminating them once and for all!
This session will incorporate a hands-on case study to allow you to put your new-found knowledge into practice right away. Interaction and collaboration with other contact center leaders will provide an excellent forum for testing your ideas and validating your own approaches.
Erika Van Noort
Bell Canada
Director, Call Centre Best Practices
Erika Van Noort is the Executive Director of the Contact Center Management Consulting Practice at Bell. She has many years of contact center experience, with a focus on strategic planning to improve the customer experience. Erika and her team specialize in identifying and piloting contact center best practices within Bell Canada, along with consulting in the areas of people, process, analytics, strategy and technology. Prior to joining Bell Canada, Erika was VP, Customer Experience, for the Customer Care & Services Forum (CCSF).
Session 504 - Building a Believable and Achievable Business Case
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Typical business cases fall short in projecting accurate total cost of ownership and productivity gains that decision-makers can trust. Getting projects approved is therefore difficult – particularly in today’s budget-conscious business environment – as managers have been burned too many times by approving projects that don't achieve corporate goals or produce expected results. In this session, you’ll learn how a process-driven approach to building a business case results in successful project funding by linking your projects to business strategy. We'll use examples and interactive discussions to help prepare you to build a process model of your current operations, determine project costs, quantify project benefits and ROI, and establish project success metrics. You will learn to build business cases that:
- Consider how the organization is changing and what impact those changes will have on the contact center over time
- Identify what process change will occur and how it will reduce cost or increase revenue consistent with overall operations strategy
- Include and quantify all costs of a project, including how those costs will change over time
- Determine the benefit of a project by identifying specific variables that will change due to implementation
- Enable traditional soft benefits, such as customer and employee satisfaction, to become quantifiable hard benefits that increase revenue and improve employee retention
- Identify success metrics to monitor after implementation to ensure that the ROI projected in the business case is achieved
As a result of attending, you will be able to confidently answer the question “How much will it cost?” – establishing you as a person that can be trusted to project benefits. Producing the accurate metrics the CFO wants to hear (ROI, NPV) will result in project funding, and ultimately solidify your indispensible reputation in the organization.
Brian Hinton
Strategic Contact Inc
Senior Consultant
Brian Hinton brings a unique and highly valued combination of strategy, process, and financial experience to contact center consulting. He shows clients how technology can add strategic value and how to best synchronize contact center decisions with corporate strategy. His background in strategic and operational planning helps clients fully grasp all aspects of business analysis in order to provide the necessary information for decision makers.
Brian has twenty years of experience in organizational management and an additional ten years in contact center consulting. He has also held positions in executive management at start-up companies and in multi-million dollar corporations. He joined Strategic Contact in 2006 having previously served as President of Primary Matters, Inc. where he was directly involved in the design, development, application and support of an activity-based planning and analysis tool for contact centers. Brian provided customer training and support to contact centers using the planning and analysis tools, as well as completing consulting projects within contact centers focusing on process-driven analysis.
With deep expertise in process-driven analysis, Brian has helped clients on a wide-range of projects, including determining total-cost-of-ownership and ROI for business and technology initiatives; designing IT projects to optimize business benefits; defining requirements, selecting technologies, and providing project management for implementation; projecting accurate, detailed budgets and resource (headcount and system) requirements; viewing detailed forecasts of labor requirements and hiring; examining the impact of re-designing business processes; and, benchmarking organizational best practices across the organization for improved efficiencies.
Brian has authored several key financial planning models used by Fortune 50 companies in the design of next generation 800 networks, in corporate business plans, and as sales tools.
Always popular, these tours offer the exciting opportunity to learn all aspects of another call center’s operations. Accompanied by an experienced guide, you’ll discover best practices and take-aways to apply to your own call center. These guided site tours as the perfect complement to your conference experience. Pre-registration is required. ICMI reserves the right when necessary to modify site tour registrations to ensure availability for all conference attendees.
Click on the session of interest below for full information.
Session 105 - ICMI Site Tour: Harte Hanks
Monday, June 01, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
The Harte-Hanks Response Management Austin - Wells Branch is one of Harte-Hanks’ three Austin locations, and the second largest in its global contact center operations. The facility currently houses upwards of 700 contact center seats and provides a broad range of inbound customer care, tier one and tier two technical support and outbound telesales solutions for a number of our nation’s premier consumer electronics, gaming systems, and consumer package goods manufacturers. Aided by a fully integrated platform of technology solutions, Harte-Hanks provides a distributed contact center environment that links their North American and Philippine based centers, providing customers a blended array of on/off shore models to extend coverage and reduce costs.
Technologies used include:
- Avaya Communication Manager 3.1.5, Expert Agent Selection ACD
- Voice Portal IVR with Nuance Natural Language Support
- Call Management Reporting System (CMS) with CentreVu Supervisor v13
- IEX scheduling & staffing tools
- RightNow inbound/outbound phone incident management, technical support, customer care, customer service, knowledge management, email response management, co-browser/chat management
ICMI's Contact Center Site Tours are far more than casual visits. Always popular, these tours offer the exciting opportunity to learn all aspects of another contact center’s operations. Accompanied by an experienced guide, you’ll discover best practices and takeaways to apply to your own contact center. Come and see this advanced technology center and witness first-hand how they provide some of the industry’s most superior customer service and unsurpassed quality performance.
Session 205 - ICMI Site Tour: American Cancer Society
Monday, June 01, 2009 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
The National Cancer Information Center (NCIC) operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, empowering constituents to prevent, manage and survive cancer. The center provides many services, including providing the public with information on cancer and tobacco cessation services. The NCIC is a unit of the American Cancer Society (ACS), which is a nationwide, community-based, voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by prevention, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, education, advocacy and service. NCIC employs approximately 600 staff, with over 60 specialists supporting constituents in a work-at-home capacity. Specialists engage with constituents via inbound/outbound phone, email and chat, handling 1 million inbound calls, 50,000 email messages, and more than 100,000 outbound contacts annually.
Technologies used include:
- Siebel 7.7
- Autonomy Qfiniti monitoring
- Genesys Routing and Workforce Management
ICMI's Contact Center Site Tours are far more than casual visits. Always popular, these tours offer the exciting opportunity to learn all aspects of another contact center’s operations. Accompanied by an experienced guide, you’ll discover best practices and takeaways to apply to your own contact center. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear NCIC share the strategies they employ to achieve their vital mission.
Session 305 - ICMI Site Tour: Employees Retirement System of Texas
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
This Texas state agency administers benefit programs including retirement and insurance benefits for all State of Texas employees, retirees and their families. With $22.3 billion in assets and 343,000 members, ERS is the 54th largest pension fund in the U.S. and the 33rd largest public pension fund. ERS has almost 280 employees, including a 25-seat contact center and six work-at-home agents that handle over 450,000 calls annually. On this tour, you’ll see how technology is used to improve customer service and increase efficiency in a small contact center environment.
Technologies used include:
- Cisco VoIP
- Apropos ACD
- Apropos IVR
- Apropos CTI
- PeopleSoft CRM
- Witness Call Monitoring
ICMI's Contact Center Site Tours are far more than casual visits. Always popular, these tours offer the exciting opportunity to learn all aspects of another contact center’s operations. Accompanied by an experienced guide, you’ll discover best practices and takeaways to apply to your own contact center. Join this tour and see how the Employees Retirement System of Texas has become the customer service delivery benchmark in Texas state government.
Session 405 - ICMI Site Tour: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
How do you implement branding in a multi-channel customer contact center environment? Come visit the Austin Customer Contact Center of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and find out how one of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies successfully delivers superior customer service befitting their top brands. This center was specifically designed to house over 300 of Starwood’s finest associates, who support over 2.2 million customer interactions a year. They serve a number of Starwood interests, including the Starwood Preferred Guest program, general reservations, Starwood Preferred Business, Global Distribution, Global Content, as well as the CCC’s training, quality and communications leadership. The Austin Customer Contact Center serves a special niche role among the seven global reservations centers, as it houses a family of specialty departments ranging from a dedicated Luxury Collection & St. Regis brand reservations desk to Global Web Services.
Technologies used include:
- Avaya environment, CTI technology
- Verint e-quality, e-learning, e-coaching, and customer feedback management
ICMI's Contact Center Site Tours are far more than casual visits. Always popular, these tours offer the exciting opportunity to learn all aspects of another contact center’s operations. Accompanied by an experienced guide, you’ll discover best practices and takeaways to apply to your own contact center. Experience Starwood’s unique brand of hospitality during this enlightening tour.
Session 505 - ICMI Site Tour: Farmers Insurance
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Founded in 1928, Farmers is one of the largest and most respected insurance brands in the United States. The Austin facility opened in April, 2007 and is one of three Farmers ServicePoint® operations in the U.S., which represent a complete re-engineering of the service support structure for their agency force and customers. The Austin ServicePoint provides personal lines policy service and underwriting for the agency force in six states, as well as offering service to policyholders, lienholders, mortgage companies and other third parties. Also located in this facility is the Commercial Business Center, which provides similar services for business insurance, and the Agency Support Center, which provides system application, network and other technical support to Farmers’ agency force across the country. There are about 900 employees in Austin, of which approximately 400 are phone reps who receive 2.1 million calls annually.
Technologies used include:
- Inquira - Knowledge Management
- NICE
- Genesys
- Avaya
- Siebel - CRM
- ServicePoint Info - employee intranet
ICMI's Contact Center Site Tours are far more than casual visits. Always popular, these tours offer the exciting opportunity to learn all aspects of another contact center’s operations. Accompanied by an experienced guide, you’ll discover best practices and takeaways to apply to your own contact center. This is a unique opportunity to see this multi-faceted center in action!
Click on the session of interest below for full information.
Post-Con 1: Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Contact Center Management
Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Unlock the secrets of effective contact center management in our acclaimed essentials course. To successfully lead and manage a contact center, you need a clear understanding of the unique contact center environment and an effective planning and management process.
This two-day course will arm you with the tools, processes and knowledge you need to create a blueprint for success. You’ll learn fundamental principles of value and performance, how to achieve service level and response time objectives with quality, how to accurately forecast, staff and schedule, and how to communicate the value of the contact center to all levels within the organization. You’ll gain practical, proven information and techniques you can apply immediately to improve your center’s ability to meet the needs of your customers, employees and respective organization.
You will learn how to:
- Develop an effective plan to meet service levels consistently
- Forecast the workload with accuracy
- Develop accurate schedules
- Manage the queue in real-time
- Understand and communicate unique call center dynamics
- Set the best key performance objectives for your center
- Identify individual performance objectives that drive the right behaviors
- Improve quality and efficiency
- Win the support and recognition of top management
- Reduce abandonment rates and recover lost customers
- Manage a wide range of contact channels
- Exceed customer expectations
- Raise performance standards
- Reduce call center costs and improve your bottom line
Who should attend?
Directors, Managers, and Supervisors responsible for customer service, sales, claims, reservations, information centers, hotlines, emergency services, and consumer affairs.
Post-Con 2: The Workforce Management Boot Camp
Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Increase the accuracy of your forecasts and schedules and save tens of thousands of dollars, month after month. Take your forecasting and scheduling processes to the next level when you learn how to improve forecast accuracy, increase employee satisfaction, and consistently meet service levels. This unparalleled opportunity to learn an integrated approach to call center workforce planning is based on the realities that managers and analysts face every day. Bring your laptop and gain four days of hands-on experience improving forecasts, calculating staffing resources, and reviewing new scheduling approaches. You and your colleagues will work through realistic exercises to solve common forecasting, staffing, and scheduling challenges.
This workshop not only teaches you proven techniques to improve forecasting and scheduling, but allows you to practice those techniques with input from expert instructors. You will leave with a laptop full of true-to-life examples. Plus, you'll receive a comprehensive course manual to reference for many years to come.
Supplement your on-the-job experience with formal training on how "the best in the industry" provide accurate forecasts and schedules that balance the needs of the organization and employees.
Take the opportunity to:
- Examine a variety of forecasting models and determine what works best for you
- Discover keys to forecasting workload demand at the monthly, weekly and intraday levels
- Examine what accounts for your staff utilization
- Learn about flexible scheduling practices to improve employee morale
- Reducer the "chaos mentality" of real-time management
- Provide more value through reporting and data administration
You will learn how to:
- Get the most out of Excel
- Use forecasting, scheduling and analysis tools to increase efficiency
- Create long-term staffing plans that account for the realities in your center
- Identify how and when to reforecast
- Build a real-time management plan
- Manage adherence to schedule
- Create more value out of your workforce management practices
Who should attend?
This intense workshop is intended for practicing workforce managers with little formal training who need to get up-to-speed fast on proven workforce planning techniques. Whether you have a few agents, or a lot; workforce management software, or not...you'll benefit from this workshop.
Laptop Requirements
- NT 4.0, 2000, XP, or higher operating system
- Microsoft Excel 2000, 2002, or 2003 (with all latest patches installed)
- 6 MB free hard disk space
- USB enabled
Prior to the WFM Boot Camp, you will be sent a USB thumb drive and asked to load software onto your laptop. For questions about laptop requirements, contact ICMI Customer Service at 800-672-6177.